The Clinical Significance and Mechanism of the Effect for Hepatitis B Virus Protein on Host Immune

The cytotoxic effect targeting hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected hepatocytes from virus-specific cytotoxic T cells and the neutralizing antibodies secreted by virus-specific B cells play an important role in the immune control and elimination of HBV. In patients with chronic hepatitis B, the liver immune microenvironment usually presents a suppression state, and virus-specific immune cells are mostly exhausted. Studies on the interaction between HBV and host immunity during infection, especially the influence of various viral proteins on immune cell function, will contribute to understanding the mechanism of the chronicity of HBV infection, disease progression, and optimization of immunotherapy against HBV. The review summarized the suppressive effects of HBV viral proteins on the host innate immunity and adaptive immune system, to help us understanding the mechanism(s) relevant to the observation that a CHB patient with HBeAg loss and lower HBsAg level is more likley achieving functionall cure. and expect to provide new sights for accelerate virus clearance and achieve functional cure of chronic hepatitis B, by removing the HBV viral proteins and consequently, liberting host immune from suppression state.